Om Sweet Om

October 2011 Archives

Hindus around the world are in the midst of celebrating Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights. I began receiving “Happy Diwali” emails and messages two days ago from friends and family members across the globe. The message of […]

I’m a fan of Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times – her writing is pleasingly quirky and relevant. Needless to say, I was intrigued when a friend forwarded her latest piece, which was provocatively titled “How Garbo Learned […]

Huffington Post has a fun 15 question Hinduism quiz online: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/hinduism-quiz_n_986328.html#quiz_1532. There are some great questions in it, so check it out. I actually got the one on bindis wrong, but I take issue with their answer. I’ll leave it at […]

Just recently, the Atlantic published some amazing photographs of Hindu festivals that demonstrate the colorfulness, diversity, and inclusiveness of Hinduism. The pictures are stunning and have been taken not only in India, but also in England, Nepal, and Bali – […]

Is Asana Religious?Last week, I received an inquiry from a Christian theologian interested in showing that “the postures of Yoga” (asana) are directly tied to Hinduism and thus, cannot be easily incorporated into daily life by Christians. While the origin of yoga is undoubtedly tied to the Hindu sacred texts, th

India's Holy Men by Joey L.I just ran across these stunning images of Holy Men by photographer Joey L. The initial set of images are of Indian sadhus living in the holy city of Varanasi...and they are absolutely breathtaking.
http://www.joeyl.com/personal-galleries/holy-men-2/

The Idea of a Constructed Hindu IdentityThe following piece was written by my friend Raman Khanna, who is also a member of the Hindu American Foundation's Executive Council.
“Hinduism was invented recently.”
“The word Hindu is problematic.”
“It’s not accurate to speak of Hinduism, only Hinduisms.”
More than a decade has

Advice on kindnessMy yoga teacher sent me the below link to George Saunders' convocation speech at Syracuse University for the class of 2013. It's worth a read:
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/george-saunderss-advice-to-graduates/?src=me&ref=general&_r=0